if you have read all the other posts, you know already that my 5th week of training for the padua marathon has been quite tough. i felt tired and out of breath every time i went out and i thought at first that the change of pace wasn't working for me after all. quite depressing, really! the truth was that i was coming down with something (which 'exploded' on friday) and my periods were due.

week 5 ended today, one day later than usual. later because my periods were on time :-) and yesterday was a tough day. i was aching a lot so i gave up and decided to postpone my 'long' run to today. monday is my 'research day' so i am sligltly more flexible.

it was a glorious day today, and my pain was almost gone. so off i went in the afternoon for my last run of the week. the plan:
warming-up until phoenix park (2miles more or less)
6X1km with 400m recovery run
cooling down from the park home

total of 9.48 miles in 1h25'40'' with an average pace of 9:02!! the most amazing things are my splits 5:28 5:27 5:24 5:19 5:15 5:03, ranging that is from 8:46 to 8:08!!! not bad, not bad! this is the longest i've run since i changed my training and my training pace!

needless to say that i feel more confident now and the programme is built so that i could do my longer run with the same pace and now i feel that it can be done!!! i needed this boost of confidence after a crappy week, really!!

so....there is only one thing that I want to say now:

WEEK 6: BRING IT ON!!!!!